Allahyari, Rebecca Anne 1963-

Visions of charity : volunteer workers and moral community by Rebecca Anne Allahyari(
)13
editions published
in
2000
in
English
and held by
2,117 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
In the United States, public talk about charity for the poor is highly moralistic, even in our era of welfare reform. But
how do we understand the actual experience of caring for the poor? This study looks at the front lines of volunteer involvement
with the poor and homeless to assess what volunteer work means for those who do it. Rebecca Allahyari profiles volunteers
at two charities--Loaves & Fishes and The Salvation Army--to show how they think about themselves and their work, providing
new ways for discussing charity and morality. Allahyari explores these agencies' differing ideological orientations and the
raced, classed, and gendered contexts they provide volunteers for doing charitable work. Drawing on participant observation,
intensive interviewing, and content analysis of organizational publications, she looks in particular at the process of self-improvement
for these volunteers. The competing visions of charity Allahyari finds at these two organizations reveal the complicated and
contradictory politics of caring for the poor in the United States today